CABRAL: We should all seek forgiveness

Friday

Mar 21, 2014 at 9:34 PMMar 21, 2014 at 11:09 PM

Have you ever been in the presence of someone and you aren’t comfortable? It’s probably because you have unresolved conflict. The only way for reconciliation to take place is for forgiveness to happen.

I wonder today how many people in our city and surrounding towns are living in unresolved conflict. I would like to ask a more penetrating question. Are you practicing forgiveness in your relationships? Do you want to? Should you want to?

In my own experience, the greatest detriment to reconciliation is an unwillingness to make peace. The bible tells us in Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” One of the characteristics of a genuine believer is that they are willing to go the extra mile to promote peace and forgiveness.

We are living in a time with a myriad of technological advantages and cures for all types of ailments, yet we statistically have more chaos, confusion and conflict than ever before. The drug epidemic in Fall River is overwhelming. We have the highest unemployment in the state, and single-family homes are on the rise. Is there a solution? Yes. It’s called forgiveness.

What I’ve learned in my short pastoral experience is that “you and I” are the problem in conflict. We struggle with forgiveness because both sides have to pay a price. It’s easier to avoid reconciliation than work through the process. Jesus was a peacemaker and it cost him much.

The bible is loaded with stories about forgiveness. Peter, a disciple of Jesus, asked him in Matthew 18:21 “How often should I forgive my brother who sins against me? Seven times?” Jesus’ response in verse 22 is very poignant: “as many as seventy times seven.”

While Peter was being calculating and trying to promote a simple solution, Jesus knew what was in his heart. What Peter needed was not to recalculate his thoughts, but a new desperate understanding of God’s love and forgiveness. Peter did not yet truly understand what true forgiveness looks like.

The next parable explains what Jesus was trying to get at (Matthew 18:23-35). In the parable of the unforgiving servant, one man in pity (compassion) forgives a debt that could not be repaid (billions of dollars), whereas the one forgiven in the story refuses to forgive one of his own fellow servants a debt that was worth about four months wages (thousands of dollars). Amazing!

The last verse (35) in the parable reveals a divine truth we must grasp. It points out that if we are unwilling to forgive others, it reveals that we have not been forgiven by God. Those who have genuinely gone to God and asked forgiveness of a billion-dollar debt they owe to him will be willing to forgive others. You see true love extending and paying for one’s debt.

My petty indifference to my spouse or neighbor is sufficient to warrant the full wrath of a holy God. Sin changes relationships. We actually think that the pain of being sinned against will go away if we neglect and “forget” about it. The reality is that unresolved conflict doesn’t make us better but bitter.

In God’s eyes one sin deserves the same wrath as one million sins (James 2:10). Yet the size of the sin is not ultimately determined by the sin itself but by the one who is sinned against. We have sinned against a holy God.

What we need to see is that WE are the debtor in the story above who can never pay our way into God’s good graces. We need to see that a massive debt has been wiped clean by a gracious Savior for those willing to repent and ask forgiveness. Unfortunately, many of us see ourselves as little sinners who can repay God by earning wages to appease him. In reality, we are great sinners with an unpayable debt.

I hear often in my street-corner evangelism that God forgives everyone. The reality is that IF he forgave everyone, there would be no need of forgiveness. In fact, even if he did forgive everyone’s sin, you would still be lacking something: righteousness. God requires perfect righteousness (goodness). Only Jesus has it. That’s why Jesus had to come to Earth. To forgive sin and provide righteousness.

This Easter the resurrection story is not only about a sacrificial death but a perfect life that affords the humble a second, third, fourth chance. God had a plan before he created the world to reconcile sinful man to himself. Yet forgiveness is costly.

To enter into true forgiveness we must see it as a pipe with three valves. The first valve is controlled by the one who has sinned. You and I must first repent and requests forgiveness. Valve two is the mercy valve. Once valve one has been opened, valve two becomes operative. The one sinned against (God) extends what we don’t deserve: mercy. Mercy promises not to say “Pay what you owe.” And in offering mercy the third valve opens. The one who has been sinned against absorbs the punishment and cost of the sin. It costs to forgive. That’s why Jesus came. Not only to be our righteousness, but to absorb our sin on the cross.

True biblical forgiveness happened 2,000 years ago when Jesus came so that we could find what hope and forgiveness in a world gone wacky looks like. This Easter make your peace with God. You and our world need to be forgiven. Run to Jesus. He will forgive you if you repent!